Useless updates

So it looks like getting the fully stocked top-of-the-line laptop I want is 2,660$ after educational discount. I could reduce that if I got a slower harddrive[1], less memory[2], or a slower proc[3] but I don't think I'd want to do any of those. I might consider the slower harddrive; the faster version will prolly drain the battery quicker, but the cost difference is so small and I think the performance difference'll be significant enough; but if someone gave me a better idea on energy cost and performance rates I might reconsider.

Getting such a laptop also comes with a free 2GB iPod Nano (after rebate) which I could probably sell to help finance the laptop (sale price est 180$) since I don't really have need of it. I could get a larger iPod which I could use, but that'd just be spending more money. Once I get Fuchi back from the shop, I figure I can probably canibalize many of the parts and sell them too. For right now I'm waiting a bit longer to figure out all my financing options before I order it, but I'll probably get it in the next few days or so. Sigh. So much money just to maintain a computer.

[1] Downgrading from 100GB @ 7,200rpm to 5,400rpm, est 90$

[2] Downgrading from 2x1GB 667MHz DDR2 SO-DIMMs to 1GB or 2x512MB, est 270$/360$ respectively.

[3] Downgrading from 2.16GHz dual-core to 2.0GHz dual-core also includes downgrade from 256MB GDDR3 (video ram) to 128MB, est 230$. Would also allow for downgrades to 80GB @ 5,400rpm (180$) and 512MB ram (450$) all of which together would bring it down to 1,800$. But downgrading the video card is not a good idea if I want to play games, also with that little memory the thing's going to crawl, and all together it'll go obsolete pretty quickly. If I were looking to downgrade as much as possible to keep the cost down I might as well start looking at the regular MacBooks.